Update: Today’s launch has been scrubbed due to “a tiny glitch in the motion of an upper stage engine actuator.” Original story: Following a successful static fire on Tuesday, SpaceX is getting set for an early evening launch of the Thaicom 8 communications satellite out of Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for 5:40 PM EDT, […]
From the Indian Space Research Organization: India’s Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), Successfully Flight Tested Today, May 23, 2016 ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime. In this experimental mission, the HS9 solid rocket booster carrying RLV-TD lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan […]
If you think NASA sometimes has trouble explaining just what it wants to do with the Space Launch System before it is actually used for the “Journey to Mars,” consider this somewhat bizarre explanation of Russia’s planned Fenix launch vehicle. Billed as a backup to the Angara system for the same reason the USAF insists […]
Russia has found a buyer for Sea Launch, the innovative but troubled launch consortium which combines an ocean going platform with Zenit boosters built in the Ukraine to loft satellites to GTO from the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Following the suspension of operations in 2014, Russia had been looking to sell Sea Launch in order to […]
The prospect of clearer skies is helping India draw closer to a flight test of a reusable launch vehicle demonstrator. After delaying a test of the RLV-TD originally planned to take place last December in order to work through technical issues, the Indian Space Research Organization is anticipating the suborbital launch of the 6.5 meter, […]
China is about to introduce a new class of small launch vehicle aimed at entering the growing smallsat market. The new, solid fueled booster is called Kuaizhou-11, or Fast Vessel-11 and should be capable of placing 1,000 kg into a 700 km sun-synchronous orbit. And at least some versions of a closely related booster sport […]
Earlier this week, Blue Origin finally opened the doors of its Kent, Washington headquarters to a small group of reporters. Although the overall purpose was to begin to pull the veil off a privately funded space development effort which up until now has inevitably been accompanied by the word “secretive,” one emerging theme was to […]
XCOR Press Release US AIR FORCE AWARDS ULA AND XCOR CONTRACT FOR UPPER STAGE PROPULSION Midland TX, March 9, 2016, United Launch Alliance (ULA), the nation’s premier launch services provider, has awarded XCOR Aerospace with a new contract through the United States Air Force to develop an upper stage propulsion system for Vulcan, ULA’s next-generation […]
An investor conference call (pdf download) for Orbital ATK which took place on March 1st has shed new, if somewhat puzzling light on Orbital ATK’s plans for a new booster to compete in the USAF’s EELV class against long standing incumbent ULA and recently certified SpaceX. Call it the rebirth of Ares-1, or perhaps of the patriotically […]
Update 3: After counting down through cloudy skies, today’s flight was delayed until Thursday. SpaceX provided two updates, the first on Twitter and the second on the company website. Team opting to hold launch for today. Looking to try again tomorrow; window also opens at 6:46pm ET. Rocket and spacecraft remain healthy. — SpaceX […]
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